PRIMULA. 



regal tussocks from year to year in perpetually increasing splendour ; 

 and the race would at last be cleared of an ill-fame that it has done 

 nothing of itself to earn. Not, for a moment, that one denies the 

 existence of capricious Primulas, both miffs and mimps, especially 

 among the Asiatics, now come into a too -kindly and cosseting exile. 

 But the bulk of our own mountain-species have the heartiest tempers, 

 the most indestructible vitality, and the greatest willingness to flower. 

 But they are children of the broad sunlight on the high rolling turf of 

 the mountain tops, and the rocks of crest and summit ; they are not 

 woodland plants, and detest to be immured in low dank hollows, 

 when their every fibre is clamouring for light and air. Therefore let 

 each cultivator release nine of his Primulas out of ten from their gloomy 

 death-beds, and plant them in loose and sandy turfy mould, full of 

 lime-chips, with very well-rotted old manure, in full sun and with 

 abundance of water (perfectly drained away), perpetually percolating 

 beneath their feet in summer. Then there will be no more word of 

 difficulty or shy-flower or sad habit (and oh, the tragic Arthritics and 

 Minimas one has seen and yearned over, being killed year by year in 

 some stagnant hollow of specially well-meant horror!), not even in 

 the hottest, driest counties ; while in the cooler North they will be 

 seen, as seen they may be here, growing and waxing like cabbages, 

 planted in rows in kitchen-garden soil, where they flower each spring 

 in a blaze of splendour, and usually again in autumn. 



Let a few general rules, then, be suggested. The enormous majority 

 of our own alpine Primulas are of easy culture. And what they want 

 is not dead darkness, but abundance of well-drained water and full 

 sun. For the four Arthritic Primulas, a rich peaty loam filled with 

 limestone chips is the ideal mixture, though they will thrive magnifi- 

 cently, as I say, in old kitchen -garden fatness ; but they must have 

 full exposure to light and air, so long as neither light nor air are ren- 

 dered pernicious by being either sodden or parched. If only they can 

 have water underground they will be happy in the hottest places. 

 The saxatile species, such as P. Alllonii, are certainly more difficult ; 

 and their highest hopes are set in a perfectly firm and downward- 

 draining crevice of hard limestone rock, where, in rich loam, they will 

 dread neither winter nor summer. The Rhopsidion and Erythrodosum 

 sections often have in nature antipathies to lime, but in the garden 

 offer no difficulty, and will even put up more cheerfully than the others, 

 very often with a shady exposure ; yet are still at their happiest on a 

 well-drained slope or in a comfortable rock-niche, with ample rooting- 

 room (for all Primulas have roots as long as a Scotch sermon), in 

 succulent but properly-drained loam, with peat and leaf -mould and 



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